Planet carrier assemblies are an integral portion of planetary gear sets used in automatic transmissions on motor vehicles. Planet carrier assemblies include a cage-like carrier member with pinion gears rotatably mounted thereon. In a simple planet carrier assembly, the pinion gears mesh with both a ring gear member and a sun gear member. The carrier member may be rotatable, or may be grounded to a stationary (non-rotatable) member, such as the transmission casing. In either case, the pinion gears rotate relative to the carrier member. Accordingly, washers are used between the components. Typically, each pinion gear has a rotating washer placed adjacent either side. Stationary washers are placed between each of the rotating washers and the carrier member. The stationary washers are referred to as such as they are held stationary with respect to the carrier member by anti-rotation tabs, such as may be formed by secondary stamping operations. The carrier member is forged or machined with mating features to retain the tabs. Precise orientation is required to assemble the stationary washers to the carrier member by aligning the tabs with the mating feature. The anti-rotation tabs and mating features adds manufacturing expense and assembly time. Additionally, the anti-rotation tabs typically cause an increase in the outer diameter of the carrier assembly, requiring additional packaging space in the transmission.
Thus, a typical pinion gear has four dedicated washers (two rotating and two stationary). The pinion gears with dedicated washers are preassembled in a subassembly, which is then inserted into the carrier member and secured thereto. Each pinion gear subassembly is inserted separately into the carrier member.